1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods, systems, devices and products for providing alerts for communications and, more particularly, to enabling a calling party to select an alert that is played at a called party's communications device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile phones, such as cellular phones, have become an integral part of our society. Mobile phones have not only become standard equipment for the employees of many businesses, but have also been widely adopted for personal use. In fact, within a single household, it is likely that more than one family member will possess a mobile phone.
Because of the prevalence of mobile phones in our society, the sound of a mobile phone ringing in a public place is common background noise. Previously, when many mobile phones had the same ring, when one person's mobile phone started to ring many people would check their phones to see if it was their phone that was ringing. Partly because of this problem and also because of people's desire to personalize their phone, mobile phones now allow the user to select a ring tone from a list of ring tones stored in the phone. Recently users can even download songs and other ring tones from their mobile phone service provider or from a third party provider of ring tones to further personalize their phones. Thus, users are no longer limited to the list of ring tones stored in their phone but can select from an almost unlimited number of ring tones. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,330 to Lee and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0067751 to Vandermeijden et al., which are incorporated herein by reference, both of which describe the ability of a mobile phone user to select a ring tone and to associate ring tones with the calling party. Users desire these personalized features, and these personalized features are profitable for the service provider and for the third party providers of the ring tones.